Microbial translocation (MT) and altered gut microbiota have been described in acute leukemic patients and contribute to immune activation and inflammation. However, phage translocation has not been investigated in leukemia patients yet. We recruited 44 leukemic patients and 52 healthy adults and quantified the levels of 3 phages in peripheral blood, which were the most positive phages screened from fecal samples. The content of 16S rRNA in plasma was detected by qPCR to assess the intestinal mucosa of these patients. Spearman’s rank correlation was used to analyze the relationship between phage load and the relevant clinical data. We found the most prevalent phages in fecal samples were λ phage, Wphi phage, and P22 phage, and λ phage had the highest detection rate in plasma (68%). Phage content was affected by chemotherapy and course of disease and correlated with the levels of CRP (r = 0.43, p = 0.003), sCD14 (r = 0.37, p = 0.014), and sCD163 (r = 0.44, p = 0.003). Our data indicate that plasma phage load is a promising marker for gut barrier damage and that gut phage translocation correlates with monocyte/macrophage activation and systemic inflammatory response in leukemic patients.

已经在急性白血病患者中描述了微生物易位 (MT) 和改变的肠道微生物群，并有助于免疫激活和炎症。然而，尚未在白血病患者中研究噬菌体易位。我们招募了 44 名白血病患者和 52 名健康成人，并量化了外周血中 3 种噬菌体的水平，这些噬菌体是从粪便样本中筛选出的最阳性的噬菌体。通过qPCR检测血浆中16S rRNA的含量以评估这些患者的肠粘膜。采用Spearman秩相关分析噬菌体载量与相关临床数据的关系。我们发现粪便样本中最常见的噬菌体是λ噬菌体、Wphi噬菌体和P22噬菌体，其中λ噬菌体在血浆中的检出率最高（68%）。r  = 0.43, p  = 0.003)、sCD14 ( r  = 0.37, p  = 0.014) 和 sCD163 ( r  = 0.44, p  = 0.003)。我们的数据表明，血浆噬菌体负荷是肠道屏障损伤的有希望的标志物，肠道噬菌体易位与白血病患者的单核细胞/巨噬细胞活化和全身炎症反应相关。